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Get opened with brilliant preheader text

24% of recipients consider this element first when deciding whether to open

Call it the envelope.

Get opened with brilliant preheader text
Are you skipping a key element that helps recipients determine whether to open? Preheader text works with the subject line to entice recipients to read your email. Image by Pixel-Shot

Before they’ll open your e-zine or email blast, your recipient considers four things: 1) the sender (or “from” name), 2) the subject line, 3) the preheader text and 4) the preview pane.

If you are only paying attention to the subject line, you are missing 75% of the elements recipients use to decide whether to open.

What’s the preheader?

Preheader text is the short summary that follows your subject line in the inbox on most mobile devices (Android and iOS) and in major email clients for laptops and desktops (Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo).

The preheader text here is: “Plus, do you actually need an avocado slicer?” Are you skipping this essential element to getting your email opened?

If you don’t write it yourself, your recipient’s email app will pull in the first line of your message — or even a URL for the lead image — for the preheader.

Why preheader text?

Preheader text can have a dramatic effect on your email open and click-through rates.

  • Some 24% of respondents looked at the preheader text first when deciding whether to open an email, according to a joint survey between Litmus and Fluent.
  • In an A/B test, an email with a written preheader (“The 5 highest viewed observations from Flint McClaughlin …”) got 104% more clicks but no more opens than the email with a URL for the first image instead of preheader text.
  • WeddingWire saw a 30% increase in click-through rates by testing preheader text.

But why leave it to chance? Draw more recipients into your message by writing preheader text as an extension of your subject line.

Beyond the subject line …

Recipients consider four elements when deciding whether to open — or trash — your email:

  1. From line
  2. Subject line
  3. Preheader text
  4. Preview pane

Are you skipping 75% of the elements your recipients use to decide which emails to open?

How can you get your emails opened?

Your subject line is only one of four elements recipients consider before deciding whether to open or click.

Think Inside the Inbox, our email-newsletter- and email-marketing-writing workshop that begins Oct. 17If you’re only writing the subject line, you’re losing 75% of your chance to get opened.

Learn to address all four elements of “the envelope” at Think Inside the Inbox, our email-newsletter- and email-marketing-writing workshop that begins Oct. 17.

Plus: Learn how to write email subject lines that get clicked, how to increase campaign revenue by 760% by going beyond personalized emails, and how one organization multiplied campaign success by 1,000% by adding one more data point to tailored emails.

Save up to $100 with our group discounts.

Register for Think Inside the Inbox — our email-newsletter- and email-marketing-writing workshop that begins Oct. 17